We will protect them no matter what Paleb
by Palebsbromance
Summary: Paige and Caleb are sick of what A is doing to their girlfriends, so they decide to end it once and for all. But when things happen and people get hurt, how long will their commitment last and how far will they go to save them.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own pll **

Paleb

Chapter one

Caleb

"So which one says young and hot without being too trending?" Hanna asked Caleb as she held up a blue and black dress at him, drawing his attention away from his homework. Caleb looked up at her with a questioning look on his face "you're asking me? Hanna, I've had this hoodie since I was twelve" he pulled the sleeve up to his wrist admiring it, whilst his voice had serious undertones. "Caleb, come on this is important, I have to impress Corin" she said stubbornly, holding the dresses up at him. "It's a job interview, you're not walking the run way" he said to her, still holding his pen in his hand. "She's the hottest designer in Philly, it would be a privilege to get her a cup of coffee" she stressed her words showing the urgency she felt about choosing an outfit. "And she wants you to do it in five inch heels" he asked her pointing at the shoes with a look of shock on his face; he still couldn't wrap his head around how Hanna could wear those never mind walk in them. "Yeah, at least" she said moving the dress in her hands, before holding them both up at him. "Okay go with the dress" he suggested and smacked his lips. "But just to be sure you should probably try them on for me" he bite his pen at her. She smiled at him biting her lip as she went, "be right back" she said softly.

Caleb checked she was gone before taking his phone out of his pocket and dialing the number. "Hey" he says quietly into the phone, keeping a low tone in his voice. "Urgh forgot my shoes" Hanna said as she started walking back into the kitchen, standing behind the door as she heard him on the phone. "Yeah I thought a lot about that" Caleb spoke hushed into the phone. "I'm in" he added. "I'm not going to let her get close to Hanna" his protective nature always took over when it was about Hanna, and considering he'd recently taken a bullet to the gut for the girl it was obvious he would risk his life for her. "We'll talk this afternoon" he said before he hung up the phone. "Who were you talking to?" Hanna asked entering the kitchen and rending Caleb speechless, but once again his quick thinking, that he'd developed from a life of living in foster homes, came to his benefit, "erm, my mom" he said confidently to her question. "Its four thirty in California, do you always call her this early?" she asked in disbelief, lacing her voice. "She's not in California, she's in Chicago, err... for business" he said looking down at his work, not making eye contact with Hanna. "So why were you talking to your mom about Mona and me?" she asked him, annoyance lacing her voice, attempting to figure out if he was lying to her. Caleb shrugged "she knows that Mona bullied you and she's just worried about her being back at school." He finally made eye contact with Hanna. "Okay, Mona had someone run your mom off the road, you shouldn't be talking about her to anyone" she was angry now, stressing each of her words. "Hanna Mona tried to run you of the road when you were friends, god only knows what she's gonna do now you've dumped her" he approached her slowly. "Maybe she won't do anything" Hanna looked down now. "Of course she will, she's A, we need to stay one step ahead of her" Caleb said with a sudden annoyance. "Look just promise me you won't, do anything stupid" she sighed closing her eyes; she was tired of this whole thing. "Hanna..." Caleb started before being cut off by Hanna. "Promise me" she added looking him in the eyes. "Fine I won't do anything stupid" he paused and stepped closer to her. "Now let's something hot and not to trendy" he placed his hand on her shoulder smiling at her.

"Hanna, you've been in there a while" Caleb knocked on her bedroom door, panic riddling his voice. "Come in" the lack of emotion in the voice made him push the door open quicker and with more force than he originally meant. It swung loudly as he looked up at the girl, she was wearing a long dressing gown which covered her feet and was facing away from him. "What's wrong" he asked as he walked towards her. She raised an eyebrow before turning and opening the gown at him. She was completely naked, apart from a pair of five inch heels and her gold necklace. "Wow, Hanna" Caleb said speechless as he looked over the girl's body smiling as he took in her beauty. "So this is your idea of a surprise" he asked her as he slowly wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in towards him. "What do you think" she giggled as she smiled and kissed him. "Wow" he laughed as he continued kissing her, pushing her body back onto the bed.

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Caleb pulled his car up two blocks away from the coffee shop as he had been asked to do by the girl. Unclipping his seatbelt he took another look around himself, paranoia sweeping over him and checked his phone one last time. Climbing out the car he started the walk to the coffee shop, shivering at the coldness that lingered in the air. He glanced around himself at the slightest abnormal sound near him. Sighing to himself he folded his arms around his body, he thought he'd stopped this behaviour when he'd left Allentown behind and stopped having to check for cops wherever he went. Yet his fear grew as he approached the coffee shop. What if they slipped up? He asked himself, half tempted to turn around he pushed the door of the coffee shop, the bell ringing and a sea of eyes on him. He ordered his coffee before sitting down across from the distracted girl. Tapping her on the shoulder as he cleared his throat and looked up at her. "Okay, I'm ready" he said quietly. "Let's do this Paige" he lent in closer to her and in a whisper he added. "If it will help Hanna, I will bring that bitch down, and I know you feel the same about Emily" he folded his arms with a sense of purpose, because for the first time in a long time he did have a purpose. To protect Hanna.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Paige**

Since Paige's PTSD started getting worse she started spending a lot more time at Emily's. Emily was the only person who has ever made her feel safe and though Paige always felt guilty for relying on Emily, considering she was so determined to be the strong one, she did love having all the attention from Emily.

It seemed selfish but all Paige ever wanted was Emily's attention, it became a rare thanks to this whole 'A' situation, but as horrible as the PTSD was, Paige was just grateful she could spend more time with her girlfriend.

"Who watches shows like this?" Emily was always one to talk over TV shows she didn't understand.

"Well, apparently people like us" Paige joked. They were sat on Emily's bed watching some pointless trash TV. It didn't matter to either of them what was on TV; they just wanted to spend as much time together as they could before 'A' interfered again.

"Have you heard from Hanna recently?" Paige was a little confused by Emily's question, neither of them had mentioned Hanna and it's not like she had anything to with what they were doing.

"No I haven't, is there a reason why I should've?"

"No. Well she wanted to apologise for the other day when she saw you talking to Shana and jumped to conclusions. She wanted to apologise herself but she hasn't had a chance to find you." Emily smiled at Paige, resting a hand on her thigh.

"Well, when you see Hanna you can tell her it's fine; it was an easy mistake to make." Paige leaned in to kiss Emily. Even though they've kissed a hundred times before, Paige still found it unbelievable, they had been together for more than a year but Paige couldn't get her head around the fact that she was kissing Emily Fields.

"Emily! Can you come down here a minute please?" Emily had forgotten her mum was home but figured she better go downstairs before she came up here and disturbed them.

"Sorry, I'll be right back." Emily kissed Paige again before leaving the room to go downstairs.

As Emily left her room, Paige's phone began to vibrate.

"Hey. I'm guessing you've considered helping me take down A?" Paige was happy to hear from Caleb, she wanted to do anything she could to protect Emily, and she knew Caleb would do the same for Hanna. She had to take advantage of that and persuade him to team up with her to save their 'A' really was a team, she couldn't do this alone.

_'Yeah I thought a lot about that. I'm in.'_ Paige was relieved at Caleb's response, that's all she wanted to hear right now.

"Great… sorry Caleb, Emily's coming back, I've gotta go."_ 'We'll talk this afternoon.'_ Paige put the phone down rather abruptly; she almost made herself look suspicious.

"Hey. My mum was just telling me she's out all day. What could we do with an empty house all day?" Emily grinned at Paige as she walked over to the bed where Paige was sat, kneeling next to her and pushing her until she was lying on her back. Emily wasted no time, her mum had just left and she was already taken advantage of this free time they had. Not that Paige was bothered by this, it wasn't often they could be alone together since everything that had happened.

Emily threw a leg over Paige's waist, straddling her and grabbing the collar of her shirt to kiss her. A dominant Emily was her weakness, with Emily lying on top of her, Paige could hardly think about anything else, she had already forgotten about Caleb's phone call.

Emily stopped the kiss curious as to who Paige was talking to on the phone. "Who were you on the phone to?" Emily asked it casually, expecting it to have been one of her parents or someone from the swim team.

Paige panicked, realising now that she couldn't tell her who it really was. If she knew it was Caleb she'd question it, and if she knew the reason why he called Paige she'd freak. Emily wanted to protect Paige as much as Paige wanted to protect Emily.

Paige replied with the first name she could think of that wasn't Caleb, or Emily's three best friends, "oh..just Shana…" the second the name escaped Paige's lips her heart sank. Of all the names Paige could have come up with, Shana was possibly the worst name Paige could've used in an attempt to calm Emily.

"What?" Emily wasn't expecting a response like this. "Why was Shana calling you?" Paige recognised the angry confusion in Emily's voice. Emily stood up from the bed where they were both still lying and walked over to her window, waiting for Paige's explanation.

"I…well, she… she wanted to talk to me about the costume… on the ghost train." Paige's hesitant tone just made Emily worry further. "Look Em, I'm sorry. You'll understand, I'm doing this for you." Paige's efforts to reassure Emily were pointless. Emily had already come to the conclusion that Paige was up to something; she just had no idea what it really was.

"We'll talk about this later." Emily didn't need to say anything else; Paige knew what Emily wanted from her. Paige let herself out.

Paige made her way to the coffee shop. She was a little earlier than Caleb but she had nowhere else to be. She didn't care anymore if anyone saw her. She had already lied to Emily and pushed her away, what did Paige care if anyone saw her with Caleb now?

Paige ordered a coffee and sat at an empty table in the coffee shop while she waited for him. While she was alone, Paige began to contemplate whether or not this was worth it, worth lying to Emily and hurting her. Would she forgive Paige if she found out what was going on?

These thoughts soon stopped when Paige heard the bell of the coffee shop door ring. When she saw Caleb she realised why she had to do this, she had to keep Emily safe, just like Caleb had to keep Hanna safe.

Paige looked out of the window at the other side of her to make sure no one she knew could see her. She had realised again why she couldn't be so careless, as bad as things get between her and Emily, she must do this properly. Both Paige and Caleb had a lot to lose, being careless would be dangerous.

Caleb tapped on Paige's shoulder cautiously, before sitting at the table with her. There was no going back now, they had to do this, for Emily and Hanna.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three || paleb

Caleb took a sip of his coffee, his hand shaking slightly at their plan Yes he wanted to protect Hanna more than anything, but the last time he'd tried to protect her he'd got a hole in his gut, but then again this was the girl he loved with all his heart and he'd rather protect her than himself. "So what are we gonna do" he asked casually. "I don't know" Paige answered him slowly, her obvious fear showing in her eyes. "Well I can hack computers and you can hit on the girls" he said with a laugh, using his humour as an attempt to break up the tension, "not funny Caleb" she said to him suddenly serious. "But you can hack stuff, that sounds good," she added taking a drink. Taking his laptop out his bag he took a glance around before opening a file, this file was everything he'd found on A so far and also a recording on everything Hanna had told him. "I still have the stuff from the phone, A's phone but it's not the best quality." He got his headphones out and offered them to Paige. "Not here" she hissed suddenly much more aware of their surroundings. "Let's go sit in your car" she suggested. He sighed as he put his laptop away, but the look she gave him stopped him from complaining.

"So that's all the videos you got" she said bitterly after they'd watched them. "Sorry didn't think to call the techniques in NASA" he replied hurt by her comment, he'd tried hard trying to get these videos and they hadn't been his best. Honestly he was unimpressed by his own work; usually he'd been able to get better information out of these things. He'd been hacking long enough, when he was younger it was to buy luxury things, now it was focused mainly on saving his girlfriend but every day he feared he could lose her. "sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you Caleb, I just…" Paige trailed off in thought, looking out the window, she'd try so hard to get Emily, and now she spent every day of her life terrified she'd lose her. This fear was something both of them had in common and was why they were so eager to keep their girlfriends safe from this person. All he wanted was to have a normal relationship with the girl he loves to not have to deal with any of this. After Hanna had told him that A was the one who ran his mom of the road, and that A had ran her down with a car. His hate for this person had grown even more. And he'd take a lot of happiness in A being out of their lives forever. They both had as much to lose as they had to gain from trying to stop A.

Caleb sighed again as he sat for a moment caught in his own thoughts, when Paige coughed to gain his attention. "I have to get home" she said quickly panic crossing her face at the idea of leaving Emily too long. Every time she left her now she worried, and she knew that if she showed Emily how scared she was it would just worry Emily. "Right" Caleb started the car, driving until he was a block away from Emily's. "You can walk from here, Emily knows my car" he said as he smiled at her. "Okay good idea," Paige replied, a sudden silence hit the car as they realised what they were doing. "I'll erm... see you soon" she said as she climbed out and left the car. Caleb checked his phone again, concern growing in him as he hadn't heard from Hanna yet. Usually by now she'd have sent him some senseless humour in the form of a text. He picked up his phone and typed a text "you okay Han?" He asked as he set off, picking up speed as he went to Hanna's. He opened her door, "Hanna?" he shouted as panic spread though him. "Where are you?" He added as he hurried his pace though to the kitchen. It was empty and his fear increased even more, he ran upstairs. The last time he'd been this panicked he'd ran into Hanna being squared up against by Lucas. When he got to the top he opened her door, and was instantly hit by the sweet smell of Hanna's perfume hit him. He wandered around her room was messy, which seemed unusual as Hanna had a place for everything, and the only time she had ever left her room messy was when she was scared or upset. He turned to the dresser where a note was written in Hanna's familiar neat writing. _"Hey Caleb, went shopping with Em for some cute shoes, love you"_ Caleb took a deep breath as he saw the note, smiling as he did. He placed his laptop off the counter and opened it. The sound of an email coming through rang though the kitchen. Caleb sighed before opening it. At the screen shot of the video; he picked up his phone. Through his shaky hands he clicked through his contacts before he found Paige's number and dialed it, after being sent straight to voicemail he swore under his breath. He called the number again, tapping his fingers on the table before calling again and whispering 'pick up' to himself. "Hello" he heard Paige's voice in his ear; she seemed curious he'd called her but not half as scared as she should be. "Is Emily there?" He asked her, his voice less than even. "No she's gone with Hanna somewhere" she said to him, her voice lacking emotion at the idea of being ditched. "Did she leave a note" he asked her. "Yeah" Paige's voice seemed angry now as if she was sick of this conversation. "What does it say" he added another question to the list he'd asked her. "Hey Paige, went shopping with Han for some cute shoes, love you" she resisted the note. "You need to come now" he said in a shaky voice.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four || Paleb**

At this point, Paige wasn't scared but she was angry. The thought that anything could happen to Emily made her blood boil. She would do anything it took to protect Emily and right now A was putting that to the test.

Paige searched through Emily's desk for her car keys. Paige's car was at her house and she wasn't going to hop on her bike and cycle down to Hanna's where Caleb currently was. This was serious and Paige knew Caleb wasn't going to be the most rational right now either.

She found Emily's car keys next to a picture of the two of them together, the realisation of what was at stake hit her in that moment; Paige's happiness; the love of Paige's life, if A had Emily then they could control Paige like a puppet.

Paige drove up to Hanna's house expecting Caleb to be waiting outside and wanting to take action to get Emily and Hanna back.

Instead there was no one there, just one light on in the house. She walked up to the front door, nervous this time, worried about Caleb. _Maybe A got him to. Maybe Caleb did something stupid and couldn't wait for Paige. Maybe he went to find A alone. _

Paige buried these thoughts and knocked on the door. Caleb answered abruptly, holding his laptop and not saying anything to Paige, just walking to the kitchen.

Paige followed anyway, without any formal invitation into Hanna's home. She sat opposite him in the kitchen, watching him ponder over something on his laptop screen.

"Caleb, what's going on?" Paige asked both concerned and angry. She'd never felt this infuriated before, this was even worse that when Alison used to torment her, at least Alison never threatened to take Emily away from her.

"I don't really know how to say this…" Caleb replied, he seemed almost as if he were dreaming, or if he wished he were dreaming. "…we have a problem." Caleb looked up from his laptop to look Paige dead in the eyes. He looked scared, and this terrified Paige more than anything. Caleb didn't get scared; he got angry or upset, but never scared.

"Just tell me Caleb!" Paige panicked, she wasn't sure if she even wanted to know what he knew. She couldn't handle the thought that Emily could be in danger.

Caleb turned his laptop to show Paige the black screen of a video.

"Just…play it" Caleb stood up from his chair and started pacing the kitchen.

Paige was hesitant in playing the video. She didn't want to play it, she could tell by Caleb's reaction that it was going to be their worst nightmare, but as much as she didn't want to, she had to. She couldn't expect to help Emily if she refused to accept what was happening to them.

After some pause, Paige finally gave in and played the video. The clip was about 40 seconds long without sound. It showed Hanna and Emily blindfolded and tied to chairs in a motel room. There was someone in the video in a black hoodie talking to the girl's, though the video was silent so no speech could be heard through the video. Neither Paige or Caleb could make out the hooded person, they couldn't even attempt to make out a gender.

When the video had finished Paige looked up at Caleb, still pacing the kitchen. "Where did you find this?" Paige asked, hoping this was some kind of sick joke between the three of them.

"I found it on my laptop when I got here." Caleb started, "I think A wanted us to see it. They know we're trying to take them down together and now they want to push us to the test. Look…"

Caleb signaled Paige to the description below the video '_You want to protect them? Good luck. -A'_

"So, it just appeared out of nowhere on your laptop?" Paige found it difficult to believe any of this was happening.

"Yeah, it wasn't there when we were at the coffee shop. But after I called you I had a quick look through my research before you got here and the video was just there with the rest of them."

"What now? Can you find out where A has taken Hanna and Em?" Paige was lost of things to say, she had no idea what they were going to do now.

"Well, they were in a motel room. There are like three motels in Rosewood, Paige, it's not going to be difficult to find so I'm fairly sure they're not still going to be there. A isn't that stupid."

Paige was glad she was going through this with Caleb and no one else. Considering Caleb's past and his criminal background he was the best partner in crime to have.

Whilst Paige and Caleb were trying to get their heads around what was happening, Caleb's laptop bleeped._ 'New message'._

Paige pushed the laptop towards Caleb, making sure they could both see the message before opening it. They both knew it was A before opening it and this terrified them. Hanna and Emily's fate could be found out at the click of a button.

Caleb took a breath and opened the message, both of them expecting the worst.

_"We only wanted the liars, you two didn't matter to us. But since you're so desperate to protect your girlfriends… how about a little game? You can save those two bitches but only if you can find the clues to their whereabouts. Are you ready? -A"_

Caleb was angry at this, the thought that someone could play with people's lives like this hurt him, especially since it was Hanna's life at steak. He stood up again from the counter and punched the kitchen wall in anger. This overwhelming anger made him more determined, nothing was going to get in the way of him and Hanna.

Paige on the other hand was in front of the laptop, reading the messaged repeatedly, tears in her eyes. She was scared, worried that this was her fault, that if she hadn't got involved with A then Emily wouldn't be trapped, begging for her life. She was slowly beginning to convince herself that this was all her fault.

The laptop bleeped a second time. Paige wiped away her tears and Caleb walked back over to the laptop wiping the blood away from his knuckles. This was it, they had to be strong now, for Hanna and Emily.

_"Ready? Here's your first clue…"_


	5. Chapter 5

Caleb sighed as he opened the first clue. He read it repeatedly as he nursed his sore knuckles. The attachment came up with a picture of Ezra Fitz. With a message under it saying "He messes around with students, why don't you find him and mess around with him, for your first clue you have till 10:00pm to mug Ezra Fitz, -A." Caleb read the message again "So I have to mug my English teacher, this A is like a weird evil genius" He said unhappily. "Evil genius or twisted" Paige piped up from her quiet corner, her breathing was heavy, her eyes down. "You okay Paige?" He asked her. After finding out about her panic attacks recently he was always on alert when she began to seem unhappy. "Yeah I'm fine" Paige blinked back the tears in her eyes; she didn't want to look weak or scared by anything. She crossed her arms as she attempted to make herself smaller, counting to ten in her head. Caleb bent down in front of her, "Just breath Paige, okay, just keep breathing, it's going to be okay. I am going to do what A needs." He looked up at her. "For Emily and Hanna?" Paige asked him as she bites her lip furiously. "For Hanna and Emily, the girls we love" Caleb smiled up at her.

Caleb pulled his hood up as he walked down the street, he knew how to do this, he'd seen enough crime films and been close to enough crimes to know how to, and how to not get caught. He sighed watching Ezra walk in front of him, he had two plans, one; if he took the alley by the sandwich shop he could corner him and mug him, throwing in a couple of punches for overkill. Or if he took the park route he could drag him into the woods, it was dark there, and he wouldn't have to stop Ezra shouting as nobody ever went around there or even cared what happened. He speeds up watching Ezra take the second left, so he was going by the woods. Caleb stood in front of the front tree, as he watched Ezra enter the woods.

Caleb slammed his body into Ezra's knocking the wind out of him "What the fuck?" Ezra snapped as he fell to the floor, feeling Caleb's arm pinning him down. Caleb attempted not to speak as Mr Fitz would recognize his voice straight away. His hands found Ezra's pockets pulling his phone and wallet and shoving them into his own pockets. He lent back punching Ezra in the face feeling his hand cutting in impact with his nose.

"It's done" Caleb came back into Hanna's house looking at Paige still sat in the same seat, still breathing heavily. Do you want me to check the computer?" He asked her. "Yeah" Paige replied, her voice broken from crying, she wasn't one to show others she was hurt but right now, all she needed was to be in Emily's arms. Caleb gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder, trying to help her. "It's okay Paige, don't worry" He smiled as he sat down at the computer opening it. "Good work, your first clue, we're out of Philly but not too far, don't get ahead of yourselves, before you go check out the news, I do like to mess up perve's lives" Caleb read out loud.

"Ezra Fitz, twenty six has often been questioned about his personal relationships with students, but now he has been found after a mugging. The issue is there is evidence to show that he may be linked to the murder of student Maya St. Germain, further evidence to be found out at a later date" The news reporter read out.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Caleb looked out the passenger window of Paige's car as they drove along. Thinking about the last time he and Hanna were together.

After a night of passion they'd laid together whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears. "Say it again" Caleb laughed in her ear as he stroked his fingers down the side of her beautiful body, hearing her giggle into his neck. "Never, I've said it like five times!" She protested wiggling out of his grip as he pulled her back. "No I want you here" He whined pulling her close, moving her hair of her shoulder so he could kiss it, "Please!" He begged her. "Fine" She smirked as she pushed him back onto the bed, her blonde hair falling in front of her face. "Dong po" She whispered biting her lips and shrieking as he pulled her close again.

His computer beeped at a new email coming though "Paige it's yours" He said as she stopped the car.


End file.
